


(From Way Up There) You and I

by ProsperDemeter



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:27:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProsperDemeter/pseuds/ProsperDemeter
Summary: Peter said something in between his huff of a laugh and the whir of the espresso machine but Harley missed it, already out of the door, his coffee dripping water onto the pavement and cursing his inability to even ask a cute boy out.
Relationships: Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Gwen Stacy, Ned Leeds/Harry Osborn
Comments: 12
Kudos: 114





	(From Way Up There) You and I

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday Miss Maya!

_ “...  _ _ So I will help you read those books _

_ If you will soothe my worried looks _

_ And we will put the lonesome on the shelf…” _

Java the Hut was stuffed in a corner off campus - smack in the middle of the campus bookstore and the local grocer and almost always packed full of barely holding it together college students, rumpled doctorate candidates, and more than one roaming dog walker (with the dog attached). It was something so quintessential  _ New York _ that Harley used to think it was too good to be true. The owner, a Miss Pepper Potts, was almost always there - chatting up the regulars and restocking the baked goods. They hosted Friday night trivia games, Wednesday afternoon group study sessions, and open mic nights every Saturday and Sunday. Their coffee was the  _ best _ drip Harley had ever tasted (imported from some very specific roasters out in Italy) and the bakery items almost made him cry whenever he tasted them. They had an entire wall dedicated to Star Wars comic books, named each drink after a specific character, and had special screenings with the movies at least once every six months. 

So Harley loved it for a bunch of different reasons, okay? He was a  _ nerd _ at heart, he was a  _ stressed out college student _ , Pepper was actually really chill (even if she was terrifying if you tried to argue with any of her staff) and the coffee was good. 

Also, okay, maybe Gwen was right, but he wasn’t going to  _ admit _ it. 

But  _ god  _ that smile was the only thing that could get him up and out of bed at five in the morning before his first class at seven so that he could beat the morning rush and steal an hour of it’s time. 

Harley was an engineering major with a minor in business management. He liked to  _ build _ things and know how they worked. From what he had gathered from the person on the other side of the counter in early morning talks - he was a biochemistry double major with a minor in criminology. When Harley had asked how he had the time Peter - the barista, the  _ smile _ \- had flushed and shrugged. “I’m not really sure, to be honest.” 

“Coffee?” Harley had shrugged and pointed at his own cup - dripping condensation because it was still, somehow, ninety and heavy with humidity in early October. 

Peter screwed up his face and shook his head from where he was prepping for the morning rush. Blissfully, Harley was the only customer this early in the morning, so he had Peter’s undivided attention. “Yuck, no thanks.” 

“An angel without a caffeine addiction? That works in a coffee shop? Are you even real?” 

The real problem of Harley consistently waking up so early was that he lost all of his ability to filter and words just  _ fell out _ regardless of how they made him sound. “You wouldn’t be the first person to ask me that.” Peter said while loading up a sleeve of paper cups. 

Either he was really good at pretending he didn’t hear the embarrassing things Harley said or he was  _ painfully  _ oblivious. 

Because that boy  _ was not  _ straight and Harley didn’t care what his sister said during their late night lament fests. Harley had caught his eyes drifting one too many times to his lips during a conversation to even lie to himself that he was crushing hard on a straight boy. Peter wasn’t seeing anyone - Harley had begged for that confirmation from the afternoon barista (a nice computer science major named Ned). It was incredibly possible that Peter just  _ wasn’t interested _ but Harley had it on good authority that that was a  _ lie _ (that good authority was his business ethics classmate Harry who just so happened to also be Peter’s roommate  _ and _ Gwen’s scary girlfriend MJ). So that left only the following options: either Peter was an incredible tease or he was the most oblivious person Harley had ever met. 

He had been opening flirting for two months and a day. 

Pepper had even noticed and usually left to go sit in her office whenever Harley wandered in with artfully crafted bedhead, a sweatshirt, and the first pair of jeans he had found on the floor of his room.

“Just ask him out,” Gwen had said after one too many strawberry daiquiris and the umbrella from her drink sticking up in her blonde hair behind her ear. 

“Peter really is just  _ that _ oblivious.” MJ had pointed out that same night. “You’re going to have to be blunt.” 

“I  _ have  _ been blunt.” Harley had muttered into his less alcoholic fizzy pepsi and absolutely did not pout from his seat at the bar. 

“ _ How  _ blunt?” MJ inquired with a raised eyebrow. “Because I  _ kissed  _ the guy back in high school and he still didn’t know I liked him.” 

That was the other thing that Harley didn’t really want to talk about. Peter had  _ dated _ before and Harley, well… hadn’t. Harley was  _ strictly _ into men - the thought of being with a woman romantically made him shudder - and being  _ strictly  _ into men in small town Tennessee wasn’t exactly heard of. He was a romantic at heart, too, which really made any potential hookups stay at  _ potential _ and nothing more. 

Because he had taken one look at that  _ smile _ and had fallen.  _ Hard. _

The bell above the door went off and Harley looked down at his watch. Six in the morning, on the dot. 

His time was up. 

“You have to go?” Peter asked, catching a glimpse of Harley’s crestfallen face even as he turned towards the customer - a clearly hungover sophomore - and smiling that  _ too bright heart stealing  _ smile that made Harley feel a little bit faint. 

“Yeah.” He saluted with his cup -  _ why was he like this _ \- and walked backwards. “I’ll, uh… see you tomorrow, Pete.” 

“The strongest coffee you have,  _ please _ . I have a four hour lecture starting in half an hour.” The sophomore lamented and Harley winced simply because that sounded so painful to have to sit through. 

Peter said something in between his huff of a laugh and the whir of the espresso machine but Harley missed it, already out of the door, his coffee dripping water onto the pavement and cursing his inability to even  _ ask _ a cute boy out. 

* * *

And Harley didn’t ask every day that week, just like he hadn’t asked for the passed two months, and kept the advice of  _ be blunt  _ echoing in the back of his mind while he was very much  _ not blunt _ and instead skirted around the question (the  _ begging  _ of  _ please go out with me  _ and  _ please live in a white picket fence home with me with two point five children and several dogs _ ). He didn’t ask the week after that when Peter leaned over the counter to wipe away a smudge of cold foam from the corner of Harley’s mouth instead of handing him a napkin. He didn’t ask the week after  _ that _ when Ned was there in the morning instead of Peter because they had switched shifts and Harley had gone back in the  _ afternoon _ every single day with a raging headache because he skipped his morning caffeine intake. He didn’t ask when his engineering advisor  _ asked him _ when he was going to man up and ask out the cute barista because Tony Stark was also a raging caffeine addict that  _ loved _ to pick Peter’s brain on scientific problems (The professors all had a grading group every afternoon from five to eight and apparently also had a running bet on which one of them would give in first. Tony said Peter and apparently Peter’s advisor - Bruce Banner - agreed even if Pepper argued loudly that Peter wouldn’t ask  _ anyone  _ out because of his raging self esteem problems. Natasha Romanov - the linguistics professor - said it wouldn’t be either of them but, instead, a friend that asked for them.). 

The fact remained, though, that it took  _ four months _ of a caffeine addiction when Harley didn’t even  _ like _ coffee for them to even get together outside of those morning meetings. 

Harry had insisted that Harley come along to trivia night and the only way he even got him to show up (because Harley had  _ finals _ to study for) was to emphatically point out that Peter went to all of them. So Harley showed up - in an outfit Gwen had stubbornly helped him pick out (his skinniest jeans, his best flannel shirt - “You’re a  _ country boy _ , Harley and you can actually pull it off.” - and the  _ love wins  _ bracelet Abbie had sent him for his birthday) - and sat stuffed between his two favorite lesbians. 

They didn’t serve alcohol at Java and according to Pepper she absolutely never would, and they cut off espresso sales at seven (college students don’t get enough sleep, Pepper said with a firm hand to anyone that complained) so Harley was drinking from the water bottle Ned had slid over the counter for him when he had ordered his desert of an M&M cookie the size of his face. Still, even without caffeine running through his veins, Harley buzzed with the sort of nervous energy that only  _ Peter _ gave him. 

Technically, it wasn’t  _ out of work _ . But Peter wasn’t working (he didn’t work nights) and Harley found himself caught up in that small technicality. 

Harley didn’t ever really hang out with Harry outside of class - they only talked because they sat next to each other - and while Ned was nice Harley hadn’t ever really thought of hanging out with him aside from ordering his drinks. Harley got along with MJ enough - she was dating his best friend he  _ had _ to get along with her in order to keep Gwen - but he would never have hung out with her otherwise. 

Harley didn’t really  _ do _ friends. 

He preferred his machines - they weren’t complicated, didn’t demand attention, and didn’t judge if anything went wrong. Gwen was really the only person that had elbowed her way past his defenses (and, well, Harley supposed Peter had blown all of them down with a  _ smile _ ). 

“Peter!” It wasn’t actually needed, but Harry still stood up atop his chair to wave his brown haired roommate over. If Harley hadn’t spent the last four months in a class with him, he would have thought Harry was sneaking drinks. As it was, Harry was just  _ like that _ and exuded an energy Harley just didn’t understand. 

Harley had seen Peter outside of Java exactly twice and each time he had blushed furiously and hid behind a stack of books before Peter could  _ see _ him. Now, though, there wasn’t really anywhere for him to hide and Gwen took a disgusting pleasure in elbowing him in the side and winking like they had a secret to share between them. Peter looked  _ amazing _ and it  _ wasn’t fair _ . 

He shrugged out of his jacket, draped it over muscled forearms, and walked with a grace that Harley himself would never have. The wind outside had messed up his curls  _ just so _ and they fell haphazardly into his eyes and, even in the dimmed lights of Java, he looked absolutely angelic. “Hey!” He hugged Harry as though he didn’t live in the same room with him and they looked almost disgustingly good together - like they meshed and blended into swirls of the same person - and then did the same to MJ when Harley hadn’t even seen MJ hug Gwen. 

And then he saw Harley and Harley watched as he did an almost double take, tripped over his next greeting - aimed at Gwen - and, instead, faltered for words while he  _ stared _ . It was almost impressive, Harley thought, how almost everyone around them seemed to fade into the background. “Hi.” Harley said the word with a tiny wave and red hot cheeks. 

“H-Hi.” 

“You’re welcome.” Harry didn’t bother whispering, and MJ almost conveniently walked around to Gwen’s other side while Harry pushed Peter into the open seat beside Harley before disappearing into the crowd. 

Peter was a warm weight against his side, and with all of them pushed into one semi-circle booth Harley had given up on trying to keep himself from  _ touching  _ and unconsciously wrapped an arm around the back of the seat to make just a little bit more room. It was around the third question that Harley started relaxing - when Ned and Harry both enthusiastically whooped when they were the only table to get it right. 

It was the fifth question that Harley actually gave the answer to and blushed almost furiously when Peter kissed his cheek with soft lips in excitement when they got  _ that one _ right too. 

It was the end of the night when they were standing outside, waiting for Pepper to lock up because, apparently, Peter was the sort of boy that walked his boss to her car every night to make sure she got there safely. MJ and Gwen had begged off after the third round of questions, and Harry and Ned had collected the Star Wars themed trophy to go to the place of honor in Ned’s dorm and walked off with linked hands into the night (and wasn’t  _ that _ a surprise that Harley hadn’t seen coming). So it was just the two of them, the late fall air biting into the skin at Harley's cheeks even though the collar of his jacket was popped up and even if his hands were stuffed deep in his pockets. 

He didn't even know what Peter was talking about - but when he said through a shiver, "You should totally come", Harley agreed without knowing what he was agreeing to. 

"Okay." 

"Really?" Peter beamed and that, right there, was better than any normal smile Harley had ever gotten. "You're gonna want to do this again?" 

"Trivia night or you?"  _ Curse his brain to mouth filter.  _

Peter fumbled, for just a moment. "I mean… was it not a good one?" 

"Was what not a good one?" 

"Oh god should we not have done this with everyone else here?" 

"What?" 

"I didn't even think about it, I'm so sorry." 

"No, really,  _ what are you talking about _ ." 

"I'm so awkward, I'm so sorry, tonight was horrible wasn't it?" Peter rambled on, his hands flying out like helicopters around his head while he talked and Harley just  _ blinked _ , confusion written on his face. 

"I mean…" Harley searched for words to reassure about something when he didn't even know what was wrong. "Tonight was fun?" 

"But that's a question which means it wasn't." Peter groaned. "I'm so sorry." 

"Peter." Harley nudged him until he looked up. " _ What _ are you apologizing for?" 

"This was such a horrible first date, Harley." Peter said through his fingers and Harley's heart jumped into his throat. 

_ This was a date? _

It suddenly made so much more sense, the  _ looks _ and teasing jabs and  _ they had been on a triple date _ and Harley  _ hadn't even known _ . He was  _ the only one _ who hadn't known. It was funny enough that he had to laugh, his head thrown back and loud into the night. Peter looked startled by the sound - startled enough to drop his hands from where he was hiding behind them. "You never asked me on a date, Peter?" Harley asked through giggles.

He watched as a dawning realization crossed over Peter's face, watched the way pink spread up from his neck to his ears and felt almost emboldened even as Peter stuttered after words that refused to stay on his tongue. He laughed because it was  _ hilarious  _ how he had been agonizing for months over how to ask Peter out. 

He laughed because it was amazing and  _ Peter _ was amazing and he grabbed the other boy close by reddening cheeks and pressed the chill out of his mouth with his own. Peter's hands clutched at the lapels of his wool coat, and kissed back with a fluttering of eyelashes against Harley's cheek. 

Peter tasted like everything Harley imagined he would- pastry and all that was good in the world. It was almost like an out of body experience - Harley  _ saw _ himself smooth a hand down to the small of Peter's back and he  _ felt  _ when tongues got involved and he  _ heard _ when Pepper opened the door, said a soft "Oh" and walked back inside to give them a moment. 

Harley only pulled back when his lungs screamed at him to do so, their foreheads pressed together and noses rubbing in the cold. He kept his eyes closed when he spoke. "I would  _ love _ to go on a second first date with you." 

Peter laughed and tilted in for a second kiss as the neon coffee cup above them went out. 

**Author's Note:**

> Lyrics and title are from You and I by Ingrid Michaelson.


End file.
